Marketing and PR - both offline and online

In its broadest terms ‘marketing' is the art of communicating with customers and potential customers.

There are many ways of doing this from traditional advertising in the press, on radio and TV, through to sponsorship, cross-promotions, exhibitions, contract publishing, to publicity stunts, virals and of course via websites.

Before a company considers placing an advertisement anywhere, they need to have a proper understanding of their customers, their tastes and their habits.

A company director or marketing manager needs to ask first and foremost:

What media is my audience reading, listening to or watching?

In that media, what kind of advert/promotion will appeal to my audience?

The more information gleaned on customer habits, the more effective the marketing and the more likely it to result in sales. It's unlikely that any business has just one clearly defined market; more likely they have a segmented market of groups of people with similar tastes. Torpedo Juice helps clients identify and target each market segment.

Public Relations is one part of the marketing mix. Wrongly perceived as ‘free advertising', any PR campaign must be led by a relevant news angle which has editorial credibility. The internet has delivered a whole raft of ezines, news sites and portals on which to upload press releases and stories, all driving traffic back to the client's website.